You’re thinking about buying an air purifier, but you’re not sure if you need one and whether it’s really worth it.
Sometimes it’s not enough to open a window to let fresh air into the house. What if it’s fire season, or you’re near a factory, or it’s too cold outside, and you would rather suffocate instead of opening a window. What then? In these situations, air purifiers are helpful.
On the other hand, because I often do air quality measurements, I am sometimes amazed that the air quality inside the house is so much better than the air outside, mainly because I use an air purifier.
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Harvard professor Joseph Allen says: “A lot of air is circulating. And we don’t just want to circulate air contaminated with viruses, so you want to use portable air purifiers (air cleaners) with HEPA filters.“
First, I will say, if you are looking for a portable air purifier, look for a HEPA filter and nothing else. All you need is a good fan in your portable air purifier that blows air towards the HEPA filter, which captures almost all particles in the air. Just look for a good HEPA filter with a so-called reasonable clean air delivery rate. “
Air purifiers are really worth the money. There are many things in favor of this. Read on to find out more.
Do air purifiers get rid of dust?
Yes, air purifiers are worth fighting dust. As I mentioned earlier, air purifiers are great at fighting dust, pollen, dust mites, pet hair, and other particles flowing in the air. Suppose your air purifier contains a True HEPA filter. In that case, you can be sure that it will efficiently eliminate all these particles.
In addition, some air purifiers, although not as popular (but safe according to the EPA), use an ionizer that releases negative ion particles, making it easier for the air purifier to suck up and trap on the HEPA filters.
If you are not sure whether or not you should buy an air purifier with an ionizer on it, don’t worry. The amount of ozone produced by such an air purifier is indeed safe and not harmful to our health, especially if the air purifier is CARB-certified.
Finally, I would like to conclude that air purifiers help in the fight against dust; this is one of the most common reasons people choose to buy air purifiers.
Air Purifiers Relieve Allergy and Asthma Symptoms
To begin with, air purifiers remove allergens and pollutants from the air, and the True HEPA filter allows them to remove particles as small as 0.03 microns. Of course, I am referring here to True HEPA filters, which are now standard and come with almost every air purifier you can buy on the market. HEPA or HEPA-type filters cannot remove such fine particles.
An air purifier is excellent at fighting dust particles, pollen, mold, pet dander, and other particles that can cause severe allergies.
Spring has come, and you want to let fresh air in, but you can’t because you immediately start sneezing and coughing, your eyes are full of tears, and all you can do is close the window in the same instant. Of course, the window must be closed when the air purifier is on, as pollen and dust can fill the room with such particles much more quickly than is usual. Still, the feeling of freshness that an air purifier provides allows you to finally breathe at total lung capacity in your own home. It makes you wish you had bought an air purifier much sooner.
I have received many inquiries, thank-you notes, and successful feedback in which people who suffer from asthma or have some type of allergy to pollen have successfully suppressed their symptoms and made their daily lives easier with the help of an air purifier. Many of these testimonials and comments can be found under video reviews on the Air Purifier First YouTube channel. Also, lately, I have contributed to an article at Porch in which I gave an opinion on the benefits of using an air purifier at home.
As far as personal tests are concerned, I have tried many air purifiers in my brother’s room because he has a very pronounced pollen allergy. Obviously, the air purifier has helped the symptoms to subside when he stays in the room with the air purifier.
Does an Air Purifier Help Against Odors
Cooking smells, pet odors, mold, cigarette smoke, and myriad other things cause odors to appear in every house. Whichever is most common in your home, an air purifier will successfully eliminate and leave only clean air. If the pollution is too high, it will significantly reduce the amount of unpleasant odors.
You’re a cooking enthusiast, but sometimes the smell coming into all parts of your kitchen really gets on your nerves, or your kitchen doesn’t have ventilation to turn on while you cook, then you’re sure going to fall in love with an air purifier that will really help you get rid of kitchen smells and odors.
Also, make sure that the air purifier in these situations contains an activated charcoal filter and that the coverage of the room covers the size of your kitchen.
Is the air purifier good at combating pet odors?
Not only does an air purifier fight pet odors, but you’d be surprised how much pet hair one such device collects in a short period.
Even if you are tired of constantly having to ventilate your room because of the unpleasant odors caused by the presence of your favorite pets, especially if you have several different types of animals, this small device using a True HEPA filter gets rid of all unwanted odors effectively and relatively quickly.
An air purifier can also help you get rid of pet hair, but for this, you need an air purifier that uses a more powerful motor and whose air inlets are large enough to suck the hair in. Although I am a big pet lover, it is pretty frustrating and difficult to get rid of pet hair and bird feathers.
To test the air purifier’s effectiveness against pet hair, odors, and feathers, I used the air purifier for some time, and I was shocked once a month had passed. Take a look at the picture below and see what you would breathe in if you didn’t have the air purifier with you. Then I was finally convinced of the importance of a good pre-filter to extend the life of the HEPA filter and increase its efficiency. All the other smaller particles that pass through the pre-filter are caught with the HEPA filter.
Even if your guests are allergic to some of your pets, you won’t need to throw them outside while they are there; it will be enough to move them to another room and turn on the air purifier, which will successfully get rid of all unwanted odors and allergens in the air, thus reducing allergic reactions from your guests or family members.
Air Purifiers Reduce Harmful Toxins
We really don’t realize how many household appliances that surround us every day emit certain harmful and toxic particles into the air. Many chemical cleaners that help you clean your household also release some harmful substances into the air we breathe. Whether the window is open at the time or not, they remain on the furniture, walls, floor.
In addition, the paint from the walls, parquet, furniture, in fact, everything you bring into the house, emits certain odors that remain in the walls of your home. An air purifier is an essential device for almost every household to help you neutralize these odors.
Air Purifiers Are Good at Fighting VOCs (volatile organic compounds)
These toxic and harmful particles, which can be found in the air, can seriously damage the respiratory tract and sensitive skin parts such as the eyes.
In this case, an air purifier that uses only a True HEPA filter is not enough. Although it’s excellent at dealing with microparticles, you’ll need a slightly more advanced device that uses an activated carbon filter in addition to True HEPA, which can absorb VOC particles and prevent you from inhaling these harmful substances.
Wildfire and Smoke
During a wildfire, the air is so polluted that opening a window would only make things worse. As this is a recurring phenomenon every year, we try to prepare for fire season before it even starts.
But to successfully get rid of the smoke and highly polluted air caused by this natural disaster, you need an air purifier with a built-in carbon filter. One air purifier that will help you with this problem is the Winix 5500-2, whose review you can read on the website.
Conclusion
In the end, all I can say is that you do need an air purifier if you live in a big city with lots of pollution. If you live in an area with lots of wildfires, you should look at a particular air purifier to help you with smoke pollution. People who suffer from allergic reactions to pollen can also benefit from a good air purifier.
The world is polluted, climate change is happening, and if you watch the news, you know that things are not better. We can expect more pollution in the following years unless something drastic happens with our industry and how we threaten our planet.
Some places on planet earth still have clean air, but those places are usually not habituated by humans. If you live in a jungle, in a place far from civilization and industry pollution, you don’t need an air purifier; unfortunately, all other people need it.
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